What Not to Do When Writing Blog Posts

Blogging is a fairly straightforward process that just about anyone can get into. You set up your website, you post your content. It seems easy, right? Blogging well, on the other hand, is not something that everyone can do. It’s easy to get caught up engaging in common mistakes that bloggers make without even realizing you’re doing so. The problem comes when you get trapped in the vicious cycle of repeating these mistakes for too long and it ultimately kills your blog.

Whether you’re just starting out or have been blogging with little success for a while, make sure you avoid doing these things:

1.      Don’t lose focus

When you start writing up a blog post you usually have a topic in mind that you want to cover. However then the words begin flowing and before you know it you’ve shifted the entire post into something completely different. If it’s relevant material, this might not be such a bad thing. However a post that starts as one topic and ends with the blogger just rambling on and on can be harmful to the overall quality of the blog. Keep what you want the end result to be in mind the entire time you’re writing your post.

2.      Write to readers, not to bloggers

Once you’ve been blogging for a while and you’ve established connections and built relationships with other bloggers it can be easy to start targeting your blog posts to those people. However you shouldn’t be writing to other bloggers you should be writing to new readers who can gain something from your posts, otherwise your readership will never expand.

3.      Avoid being too text heavy

Break up your posts into lists and bullet points; otherwise your posts can become too overwhelming to read. Having your paragraphs broken up into a list style gives the reader a break from too much text and allows people to skim easily for the main points. It’s unlikely that anyone is going to read anything word for word and you want your reader to be able to take away the overall gist of the post easily.

4.      Don’t shy away from controversy

People love to read a well-written, controversial piece versus something that is just bland information. This doesn’t mean to throw caution to the wind and attack certain people, groups, or happenings without any tact to the situation, but if there’s something you feel passionate about don’t be scared to respectfully share your opinion. This encourages people to also share theirs, and can lead to great discussions in the comments section of your post. The key is approaching controversy with consideration and sensitivity.

5.      Don’t skip proof-reading

There is nothing worse than publishing a post before you’ve proofread it only to come back later and realize that you have several glaring errors, or worse have a reader point them out to you. You lose credibility when you publish something that is wrought with grammatical errors, so take the time to edit and then publish.
Successfully writing solid posts takes a lot of time and effort, but is also the best way to draw in new readers and continue to expand. Don’t just slap up a post with no thought, spend some time making it the best post possible. Your readers want to read quality over quantity.